1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hard magnetic material and a method of producing such a material, which hard magnetic material essentially consists of Fe and exhibits excellent magnetic characteristics over a wide composition range.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Although production costs of generally used ferrite magnets are low, the magnetic characteristics thereof are unsatisfactory. Quenched Nd--Fe--B magnets are known to have superior magnetic characteristics to ferrite magnets. In addition, new types of alloy magnets such as Sm-Fe-N magnets have been investigated for achieving more superior characteristics.
However, for example, according to the above quenched Nd--Fe--B magnets, it is difficult to reliably produce a hard magnetic material having excellent magnetic characteristics. This is because in spite of superior magnetic characteristics to the ferrite magnets, the quenched Nd--Fe--B magnets, which are prepared by quenching to form an amorphous phase and then heat-treated to precipitate a fine crystalline phase, cannot form a single amorphous phase after quenching. Thus, the crystalline structure formed by heat treatment readily becomes uneven.